SHELBY 1923: The Dempsey-Gibbons Fight for Glory and a Little Montana Town's Impossible Dream Paperback – November 14, 2023

“ROCKY in the Wild West!”—Biography.comAn impossible dream. A million-dollar prizefight. A battle of life and death.In America's tumultuous early twentieth century, always-smiling boxing maestro Tommy Gibbons, aka The Happy Warrior, races the clock to capture the heavyweight crown and heal his beloved wife from the debilitating mental illness that threatens his young family.All that stands in Tommy’s way is 15 rounds against the murderous, Jack Dempsey, and the reigning champ’s legendarily villainous manager, Jack Kearns, often called “The Beelzebub of Boxing!”Tommy’s path to victory leads him to a tiny Wild West outpost desperate for fame and fortune -- Shelby, Montana, aka “the little town that God forgot.” Ramping up to the July 4, 1923 battle, Tommy must navigate a vivid, diverse kaleidoscope of con artists and crooks, cowboys, gunslingers, bootleggers, sportswriters, Indians, movie stars, impossible dreams, and unexpected nightmares.With courage, kindness, and nobility, Tommy fights for the love of his life and a chance to prove himself in the showdown of his fighting life against "angel of death" Jack Dempsey.Fans of Seabiscuit, Rocky, Cinderella Man, The Boys in the Boat, and Jazz Age immortals like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Damon Runyon will cherish the thrilling, inspiring adventure of SHELBY 1923 — which critics have called “an absolute knockout,” “a cinematic rollercoaster!,” "a portal into another time and place,” and “a timeless, ‘true-good story’ most urgently needed in today’s world!”BUY NOW to join Tommy Gibbons and Shelby, Montana on their fight for glory — exhaustively-researched, exuberantly written, and lushly illustrated with hundreds of rare and never-before-seen images from the personal archive of award-winning historian/author/filmmaker Gerard Gibbons, the grandson of courageous Tommy Gibbons. Read more